QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani on Thursday assured support of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) to its coalition partners in the upcoming Senate elections scheduled to be held in March next year.

Talking to reporters after attending a function held here at the Boy Scouts headquarters to mark the international day for special persons, he said that his party had a partnership with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and it would support it in the Senate elections.

However, he said, “I hope the PTI will field only one candidate from Balochistan in the Senate elections.”

In reply to a question, he said the government was taking steps to promote tourism in the province and would build link roads for giving access to tourists to all places of tourism across Balochistan.

Provincial Ministers Haji Noor Mohammad Dummar, Abdul Khaliq Hazara and others were present on the occasion.

He said that the provincial government had distributed 500 tricycles among special persons and adopted a policy under which new buildings would have a special lane for special persons so that they don’t face any difficulty. He said presently there was no such system in hospitals, offices and educational institutions.

“There should be a sports complex for special people in the province,” CM Alyani said.

He said that it was a good sign that people had started taking Covid-19 seriously. But, he added, there was a need to take it more seriously and follow SOPs issued by the government.

The chief minister ciriticised the opposition parties’ alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement for holding public gatherings, saying that the people of the country were wondering whether the restrictions of assembly were only for them.

Speaking at the function earlier, he said the government would soon introduce special bus transport services for disabled persons and would also provide maximum facilities to them as they were important members of society.

He said that special persons had equal rights and it was top most priorities of his government to provide maximum opportunities to them and make them very useful members of society.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020